Upsall Castle

Upsall Castle is a fourteenth century ruin, park and manor house in Upsall, in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England.

The earliest extant building on the site is the ruin of a quadrangular castle, probably begun in 1327 by Geoffrey Scrope, which was reputedly demolished in the Civil War. [cite web| url = http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/2185.html| title = Upsall Castle| accessdate = 2007-02-02| last = Davis| first = Philip| date = 2007-01-20| work = Gatehouse: The comprehensive gazetteer of the medieval fortifications and castles of England and Wales] This castle was replaced by a manor house, which was rebuilt in the 19th Century and then rebuilt again following destruction by fire in 1918. [cite web| url = http://www.thirsk.org.uk/upsall/| title = Upsall, North Yorkshire| accessdate = 2007-02-02] .Upsall castle is part of the Upsall and Roxby estates owned by the Turton family. The present owner of the castle is Gerald Turton, who works to promote the Beef Shorthorn breed of cattle. He is the third generation of his family to run the Upsall herd, which is the oldest in the country having been established in 1909 by Gerald Turton’s great uncle Sir Edmund Turton. [cite web
url=http://www.stackyard.com/news/2006/01/jennifer/beef_shorthorn.html
title=Beef Shorthorn - a cattle breed for the future
publisher=www.stackyard.com
accessdate=2008-08-04
last=
first=]

Legend

"The Legend of Upsall Castle" survives in many forms. Some can be found in historical documents, others have survived via word of mouth and one version has been converted into a children's story written by Eliza Gutch.

The most reliable version can be found in Arthur Mee's "Yorkshire North Riding" of 1941.

The story begins with a member of the Scrope family who found the original 14th Century Upsall Castle in ruins, and dreamt that if he stood on London Bridge he would find enough money to build it again. He made his way to London Bridge, he stood there for three days dressed as a beggar, until a Quaker approached him and said, "I see you are as poor as I am, but if only I could get to Yorkshire, I would soon be rich".

"What would you do?" Scrope asked. "I would find gold under an elder tree near Upsall Castle", replied the tinker.

The tale goes on to say that Scrope hurried back to Yorkshire and found the gold. He used his new found wealth to rebuild the castle in which his family continued to live for several centuries.cite web
url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Southkilvington/Southkilvington90.html
title=GENUKI: South Kilvington Parish information from Bulmers' 1890.
publisher=www.genuki.org.uk
accessdate=2008-08-04
last=
first=]

This Legend shows remarkable similarity to the novel The Alchemist published in 1988 in by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.

External links

References

Eliza Gutch, County Folk-Lore, vol. 2: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning the North Riding of Yorkshire, York, and the Ainsty (London: Published for the Folk-Lore Society by David Nutt, 1901), pp. 408-409.